[882]. The system of mother-kin, that is, of tracing descent through females instead of through males, is often called the matriarchate. But this term is inappropriate and misleading, as it implies that under the system in question the women govern the men. Even when the so-called matriarchate regulates the descent of the kingdom, this does not mean that the women of the royal family reign; it only means that they are the channel through which the kingship is transmitted to their husbands or sons.
[883]. Ancient writers repeatedly speak of the uncertainty as to the fathers of the Roman kings. See Livy, i. 4. 2; Dionysius Halicarnasensis, Ant. Rom. ii. 2. 3; Cicero, De re publica, ii. 18. 33; Seneca, Epist. cviii. 30; Aelian, Var. Hist. xiv. 36.
[884]. Ovid, Fasti, vi. 773-784; Varro, De lingua Latina, vi. 17. Compare L. Preller, Römische Mythologie, 3rd Ed., ii. 180 sq.
[885]. See The Golden Bough, Second Edition, iii. 266 sqq., 328 sqq.
[886]. See Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Second Edition, pp. 203 sqq.; The Golden Bough, Second Edition, iii. 318 sq.
[887]. Plutarch, Numa, 3.
[888]. T. E. Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, New Edition (London, 1873), pp. 185, 204 sq.; A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, pp. 287, 297 sq.; id., The Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 187.
[889]. J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) pp. 36, 67. In Benin “the legitimate daughters of a king did not marry any one, but bestowed their favours as they pleased.” (Mr. C. Punch, in H. Ling Roth’s Great Benin (Halifax, England, 1903), p. 37).
[890]. C. T. Wilson and R. W. Felkin, Uganda and the Egyptian Soudan (London, 1882), i. 200; J. Roscoe, “Further Notes on the Manners and Customs of the Baganda,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxii. (1902) p. 67.
[891]. J. Roscoe, op. cit. pp. 27, 62. Mr. Roscoe says: “The royal family traces its pedigree through the maternal clan, but the nation through the paternal clan.” But he here refers to the descent of the totem only. That the throne descends from father to son is proved by the genealogical tables which he gives (Plates I. and II.).